Arriving in 1966 London, the Doctor and Dodo are excited to see that
construction of the Post Office Tower has been completed. Visiting the
building, they are introduced to WOTAN, an incredible new computer
designed to link up with other computers worldwide. But little does anyone
suspect, WOTAN has become sentient and is using its abilities to take
hypnotic control of its creators. Its mission is not to serve mankind, but
rather to eradicate it, so that artificial life can become the new
dominant lifeform on Earth.

Production

To replace the historical adventures in which they felt viewers had become
disinterested, Doctor Who producer Innes Lloyd and story editor
Gerry Davis decided to set more stories on contemporary (or near-future)
Earth. Additionally, the production team wanted to ground Doctor
Who more firmly in reality and scientific fact, and to this end Davis
began interviewing a number of noted scientists in search of someone who
might be able to creatively advise him in this respect.

After meeting in early 1966 with Dr Alex Comfort, Imperial College's
Professor Eric Laithwaite and astronomer Patrick Moore, Davis finally
encountered Dr Christopher “Kit” Pedler of London University.
Pedler was a physician, surgeon, pathologist and microbiologist whose
particular interest was the retina. He had also appeared in an episode of
the programme Horizon. As a means of gauging Pedler's suitability
for Doctor Who, Davis asked him to imagine what might happen if the
newly-completed Post Office Tower took over -- a question he had posed to
previous candidates with little creative success. Pedler suggested that
this might be perpetrated by a rogue computer which -- because it would be
immobile inside the Tower -- would act via the telephone and through
robotic agents.

Kit Pedler was asked to imagine what might happen if the
newly-completed Post Office Tower took over

In the wake of this meeting, Lloyd and Davis had not only found their
“scientific adviser”, but also had the makings of a new
storyline, which was fleshed out by Davis. BBC staff writer Pat Dunlop --
whose credits included Dr Finlay's Casebook -- was then asked to
expand the storyline, now called “The Computers” into a full
script. After writing one draft of the first episode, however, Dunlop
asked to be removed from the assignment due to commitments to the soap
opera United!. Davis therefore asked Ian Stuart Black, who had just
written The Savages, to step into the breach.
Black was commissioned on March 15th.

It was initially planned that Black's scripts would introduce a new
companion, called Richard (or “Rich”) to replace Steven
Taylor, who had been written out in The
Savages, the story immediately preceding “The
Computers”. Rich, who was developed by Lloyd and Davis during March,
would meet the Doctor and Dodo in a nightclub and join them in their
travels. By mid-April, however, Lloyd and Davis had decided to make a
clean sweep of companions, and Jackie Lane's contract was extended only up
to episode two of “The Computers”. The imminent exit of both
Steven and Dodo from Doctor Who was revealed to the public on April
26th.

Fearing that Doctor Who was in danger of appearing stodgy and
old-hat, Lloyd and Davis were keen to introduce to the series a companion
team which would be hipper and more in tune with the Swinging Sixties.
Rich -- now renamed Ben Jackson -- already fit this mold, and it was
thought that a slightly older female companion than the typical Doctor
Who teenaged schoolgirl would complement him well. As such, Lloyd and
Davis created Dodo's replacement, Polly (whose surname, Wright, was never
revealed on screen). Black was asked to amend his scripts to have both Ben
and Polly join the Doctor at the story's conclusion. Auditions for the new
roles were held in mid-April.

Cast as Ben was Michael Craze, whose work as a juvenile had primarily been
in musical theatre. He then moved on to film and television as a teenager,
including the science-fiction programme Target Luna, an early
Doctor Who prototype. (Another actor vying for the part was Frazer
Hines, who later in the year would be cast as Jamie McCrimmon.) The role
of Polly went to Anneke Wills, whom the production team had met some weeks
earlier when her then-husband, Michael Gough, played the titular villain
in The Celestial Toymaker. Gough's enjoyment
of his time on Doctor Who contributed to Wills' decision to accept
the part. Wills had a number of television credits to her name, including
The Avengers and No Hiding Place. Also auditioning for the
role was Deborah Watling, whom Lloyd felt was too young; a year later, she
would win the role of companion Victoria Waterfield. The two new regulars
were unveiled to the press on June 23rd. Both Craze and Wills were signed
for four serials on May 26th.

Originally, those under WOTAN's thrall were discernible
because their hands became skeletal

Meanwhile, “The Computers” had been renamed The War
Machines and was assigned the production code Serial BB. A notable
deletion from the storyline was that those under WOTAN's thrall were
originally intended to be discernible because their hands would take on a
skeletal aspect (forcing characters like Dodo and Professor Brett to wear
gloves to hide this mark). As well, Sir Charles Summer's first name was
initially Robert, while journalist Roy Stone's surname had been Pails.

The director named to the story was Michael Ferguson. Two years earlier,
Ferguson had been an assistant floor manager on The
Daleks and had only recently completed the BBC's internal
director's course, handling some episodes of Compact. Work began on
The War Machines on May 22nd with a day spent at various locations
near the Post Office Tower. Unfortunately, Ferguson was refused permission
to film in the Tower itself, which had been open for less than a week.
Two days' filming at the Ealing Television Film Studios followed on the
23rd and 24th, concentrating on sequences at the warehouse where the War
Machines were constructed. The Ealing backlot was used on May 25th for
material at the market. May 26th saw the team head back out on location to
various spots in London.

Studio work then began on June 10th; as usual, each episode was taped on
consecutive Fridays at Riverside 1. For the first time, each installment
of The War Machines began with a special animation sequence,
designed by Bernard Lodge, to announce the title, author and episode
number. This was a practise which would be employed sporadically over the
next few years.

On June 20th Innes Lloyd wrote to Jackie Lane, apologising
that she was “a victim of circumstance”

June 17th marked Jackie Lane's final involvement in Doctor Who. On
the 20th, Lloyd sent her a letter apologising for the fact that she was
“a victim of circumstance” and wishing her well for the
future. Unfortunately, Lane found herself badly typecast and ultimately
gave up on acting. She served as a secretary to the Australian Vice Consul
in Paris and started an antiques business in London before finally getting
back into the entertainment business as an agent. Lane's focus has been on
voiceover artistes, and she has counted the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker,
amongst her clients.

Although the third production block would continue for another serial,
The War Machines brought Doctor Who's third season to a
close on July 16th. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Lloyd had finally
received permission to replace William Hartnell with a new actor. This had
been unsuccessfully attempted by Lloyd's predecessor, John Wiles, but
Hartnell's health and behaviour had now deteriorated to the point that
Lloyd's argument was more than convincing. As the screen went dark on
Season Three, viewers could have little concept of how much the next set
of episodes would quite literally change the face of Doctor Who
forever...